


Emigration

by Maple



Category: Highlander: The Series
Genre: Gen, Historical, Humor, Quote Challenge, happenstance and luck
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-06-19
Updated: 2011-06-19
Packaged: 2017-10-20 13:15:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,042
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/213168
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Maple/pseuds/Maple
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It is snowing and the fires are burning, and an Immortal dies. When he lives again, he's in a tropical paradise. How exactly did he manage to get there?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Emigration

**Author's Note:**

> General warnings for implication of cursing and violence.
> 
> The inspiration was the following quote: "How had I died among snows and smoking fires and come to rise here beneath this caressing sun?" The Vampire Armand by Anne Rice.

Haquel had just enough energy to put a hand on the tip of the hilt of the knife that had struck him in the chest and was buried so deeply that it was rasping against internal things that it really had no business rasping against. One of the other combatants, and at this point Haquel couldn't tell if it was friend or foe, there really ought to be some kind of better system to tell the difference, a strange part of his brain suggested, loomed over Haquel, silhouetted against the smoking skies. His lips were moving, but Haquel was too far gone to hear the words. The last thing he remembered were the snowflakes falling against his cheeks and melting, tickling and uncomfortable.

*~*

"Aren't you dead, yet?" asked the other combatant, who was in fact a member of the enemy faction. He gave the body a kick, the head lolled, and that was enough for the combatant. He began to rifle the body's pockets, when he noticed a shadow next to him on the ground.

"What are you doing there?" The man on horseback was obviously suspicious.

"This is my brother, sir, I was taking home his things to his widow," he lied through his teeth.

"The battle is over. Take your brother's body over there for burial." The man pointed to an area where all the dead were being dragged for mass burial.

"Yes, sir. Yes, sir!"

*~*

"That one. How much?"

The combatant rubbed his jaw and gave a price.

The doctor huffed, but there was no help for it. He motioned and his two henchmen collected up the three bodies he'd purchased--well, purchased the silence of the men for what he was doing, at least. They flopped onto the cart and the doctor paid the price, and off  
they went.

Cadavers were so difficult to find. It was a gruesome business, but he had a school to run.

*~*

"It's a dirty business!"

"I've got permission, Officer. If only we could--"

"Oh, I know *permission* , you lout." The officer raised himself up to his full height. "You'll be *shipping* the remains of these poor souls *back* to their families, then."

"Oh, yes. Of course. Definitely."

*~*

The _Cozen Kippel_ (the least expensive passage the doctor could find for the bodies that he'd unfortunately discovered had far-away origins) set sail at dawn. By dusk, she'd run into fierce storms, and by midnight, she was lost.

The cheap pine casket, which was more glue than actual wood, popped up and was thrown around in the storm for a while. When the storm died, the coffin kept on, bobbing along under the salty breeze.

*~*

Eventually, the coffin waterlogged and sank. The current at the bottom of the ocean beat it back and forth until finally the sea tired of the game and spit it up on a foreign shore.

The coffin lodged among some rocks and when the tide went low, the young boys of the local families came to dig for clams and discovered the strange sight.

They lightened the corpse's burden of the heavy coffin-wood, and gave the poor unknown dead man a less-than-proper burial there on the beach. They took the wood home.

*~*

Less than an hour after the boys left with their newfound treasure, a pair of dogs happened on the most-wonderful occurrence of a buried body! It was quick work of digging and pawing, but they both got their mouths on something fleshy and managed to get it mostly unburied. Just perfect for gnawing and rolling.

*~*

"Shoo! Get! Away with you!" The local witch-healer kicked one of the dogs, which yelped. "Go back home, mongrels. You both get fed very well, and don't I know it!"

She spent a moment to look at the body, which now looked as if it had been dragged up the beach by the two dogs. The body looked relatively fresh. That was good. Some of her unique healing medicines had been getting low. Now she could replenish her stocks of tongue and liver, grated skin, and severed hands hung to dry until they could be used for a lamp of glory.

She whistled for her husband, who was down the beach looking for other interesting things.

*~*

The corpse was half-carried, mostly dragged, to the empty cave at the far end of the beach. The smells of the dead wouldn't reach the town from here and the wife and husband could get on with their business.

Which would have to wait, as one of their friends came running to tell them that the townspeople had finally had enough of the witch and her husband, and were attempting to burn down their house that very night.

*~*

The witch-healer and her husband didn't manage to return before high tide did, and with it, the lapping waves and ocean that decided it wasn't entirely done with its toy, and swallowed the corpse back into its depths.

*~*

A very humble fisherman who went by the nickname Stinky (in the local vernacular and because he liked fermented fish a little too much), tried to pull up his net and found he'd snagged something a little larger than his regular catch of seaweed and fish.

After a few choice curse words, much grunting, and a very stubbed toe, Stinky managed to pull the body into his boat.

"That," he told the corpse, "is a very interesting knife. Do you mind?" He pulled the knife out.

Then he sat down to wait.

*~*

Haquel spit out seawater and sand. He gasped and cautiously tried to move his arms and legs. He was concerned to find that he'd woken up with another Immortal about. "Hello?"

"Welcome," replied the man in the same language. "I think you've had a bit of an adventure."

Haquel raised his head up. The blue sky and warm, bright sun he'd seen from the bottom of the boat came to also include a coastline not far off with the strangest looking trees. The water on the side of the boat was of the bluest turquoise and he could see all the way down to the seafloor as if it were only made of crystal.

"What happened?" he asked. "How'd I get here?"

"Never mind that. You're here now. Enjoy."


End file.
